Chaos, nerves and excitement: How one PWHL player navigated expansion

Leading up to last week, Kayle Osborne felt the anxiety of the unknown.

The 24-year-old goaltender just finished her second professional season, and her first as the starter with the PWHL's New York Sirens. Under a big workload, Osborne played her way on to the Canadian Olympic team, where she's a contender to be the team's goaltender of the future.

But like so many players in the PWHL, she wasn't sure what to expect as the league began a multi-phase expansion process to fill out the rosters of four new expansion teams launching next season in Hamilton, Detroit, San Jose and Las Vegas.

"There was just so much uncertainty to try to wrap your head around," Osborne told CBC Sports on Monday. "You couldn’t really have conversations because that wasn’t allowed in the rules. You had to wait until a certain day, but then things moved so fast. So it was just very chaotic."

When the dust settled, Osborne was one of five players to sign as a foundational player in Hamilton.

Osborne had hoped to stay in New York, but wasn't among the three players protected by the Sirens last Wednesday.

New York opted to keep three young forwards who'd been top picks in the last two drafts: Sarah Fillier, Kristýna Kaltounková and Casey O'Brien.

"They protected three really quality players," Osborne said. "I definitely understood that. But I think then at that point, I was kind of grasping that this is a new chapter, it’s a new opportunity and then with that came excitement."

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When the PWHL Players Association released this seasons salary figures, it was revealed that 65 per cent of players make under $60,000 US yearly.

When she was able to talk to expansion teams on Friday, Osborne liked what she heard from Hamilton GM Meghan Duggan.

"We’re very aligned on a lot of the things we think about hockey in terms of identity and culture, so that was phenomenal," Osborne said. "For me, that kind of sealed the deal, just talking to her and realizing we’re on the same page and she’s building something really cool here."

She liked the prospect of playing under head coach, Kris Sparre, who joined Hamilton from Boston, where he orchestrated a big turnaround for the Fleet last season. Osborne certainly noticed Sparre's impact. Her team lost all four games against the Fleet.

Another selling point: She'll now play less than four hours from her family in Westport, Ont., which is about 40 minutes north of Kingston.

The first person she called after signing with Hamilton was her mother, Debbie.

"She is the most supportive and caring mom out there," Osborne said. "She was over the moon to hear I was under four hours away."

Her departure is a loss for New York, which was the only team in the PWHL to not protect a goaltender during the expansion process.

The team will need to fill the hole through trade, free agency or the entry draft, which is next Wednesday in Detroit.

"She leaves a lasting impression on our team, and we are better because of her presence, her energy, and her dedication," New York GM Pascal Daoust said in a statement about Osborne. "Her impact on our culture and performance will carry forward, and we wish her nothing but success in the next chapter."

Osborne joins a star-studded lineup in Hamilton, which also includes former Ottawa Charge teammates Brianne Jenner and Emily Clark, Swiss star Alina Müller (Boston) and young defender Nicole Gosling, who solidified a role quarterbacking Montreal's power play en route to a Walter Cup.

Jenner was the first player announced to have signed in Hamilton on Friday afternoon. Osborne had already signed her contract, but didn't know Jenner was on board, too.

When the news broke, she immediately texted Jenner, who she'd lived with during Team Canada training last fall ahead of the Olympics.

"That was a really cool moment," she said.

Osborne is a young goaltender to build around, and the same can be said on the blue line for Gosling, who only got better as the season went on in Montreal.

There's leadership in spades from Clark, who can be counted on to kill penalties, and Jenner, who elevated every line she played on in Ottawa.

Müller is one of the best two-way centres in the league, and a player Sparre knows well from his time in Boston.

Those foundational pieces, along with Sparre steering the ship, cements Hamilton as a team to watch next year.

Duggan has talked about building a team that's hard to play against, that plays with pace and pressure, which sounds a lot like the identity of the Fleet team Sparre coached last season.

"We want to create something that's sustainable, that people want to be a part of," Duggan said shortly after she was hired. "That's including our fans, that's including our players, that's including our staff."

Elsewhere in the league, Detroit used its expansion foundational offer — a contract worth at least $100,000 US per season — on former Toronto Sceptre, Daryl Watts, who signed the PWHL's first four-year deal.

She's joined in Detroit by Team USA gold medallists, Cayla Barnes (Seattle Torrent), Hannah Bilka (Seattle Torrent) and Britta Curl-Salemme (Minnesota Frost), as well as Sceptres forward Jesse Compher.

Detroit will also add former Seattle captain Hilary Knight in a sign-and-trade with Las Vegas in exchange for Detroit's first-round draft pick, according to John Warrow of The Associated Press.

The deal won't be official until the league's trade freeze is lifted on June 16, the AP reported on Monday.

That gives Detroit several dangerous offensive weapons, including two (Bilka and Watts) of the top five scorers at the Olympics.

Las Vegas focused on building from the blue line out, adding defenders Mae Batherson and Kendall Cooper from the Minnesota Frost, as well as Walter Cup champion Erin Ambrose from the Montreal Victoire. Vegas also signed Ambrose's Montreal teammate, Hayley Scamurra, a gritty power forward with an offensive touch.

San Jose used its expansion foundational offer on two-way forward Kristin O'Neill, one of head coach and GM Troy Ryan's go-to penalty killers on Team Canada. Only three players in the league won more face-offs (272) than O'Neill did last season in New York.

Ryan also signed former Ottawa Charge defender Rory Guilday, New York forwards Anne Cherkowski and Maddi Wheeler, and Seattle goaltender Corinne Schroeder.

All five expansion teams had until Monday afternoon to sign five foundational players, though the process dragged on into the evening as contracts were processed and announced.

The next phase of the expansion process begins on Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET. Expansion teams can sign up to three additional players each, while the eight existing teams can protect three additional players each.